Bryant's portrait should include oil rigs

The Biloxi Lighthouse is an obvious part of the background in the official portrait of Gov. Haley Barbour recently dedicated at the Mississippi State Capitol. The symbolism is meant to evoke his leadership during and after Katrina and to mark his legacy.

The iconic lighthouse is also seen now on bumper stickers and yard signs that the 12 Miles South Coalition is distributing on the Coast and elsewhere. The signs show the lighthouse next to a graphic of an oil rig with a red circle and slash through it. The message is: "Don't ruin the barrier islands of the Gulf Islands National Seashore by putting rigs next to them."

During his last month in office, Gov. Barbour quietly ordered MDA, his development agency, to publish rules allowing mineral leasing and seismic testing in state waters as close as one mile off the Gulf-side beaches of Mississippi's barrier islands and closer inside off Pascagoula and Bay St. Louis. Gov. Phil Bryant and MDA seem content to blindly steer the same course regarding drilling and production rigs right next to Ship, Cat, Horn and Petit Bois Islands. These islands are still being cleaned of oil three years after the BP disaster. When a resulting drilling accident next to these islands coats them once more with oil and dead pelicans, then may Gov. Bryant's official portrait will depict oil rigs as clearly as Barbour's shows the lighthouse.

A.E. Whitehurst

Madison

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Bryant's portrait should include oil rigs

The Biloxi Lighthouse is an obvious part of the background in the official portrait of Gov. Haley Barbour recently dedicated at the Mississippi State Capitol. The symbolism is meant to evoke his